PORTLAND, Oregon, US – Sustainable Harvest Inc, pioneer of the Relationship Coffee Model, today announced registration for its global event, Let’s Talk Roya, is now open.
The three-day conference, to be held November 3-6th at the Royal Decameron hotel in El Salvador, will be a dynamic gathering of representatives from across the global coffee supply chain in response to this year’s Latin American Coffee Leaf Rust crisis.
The program is relevant to farmers, co-op leaders, financiers, NGOs, roasters, government and coffee association representatives and others.
Let’s Talk Roya is the second major milestone for Sustainable Harvest’s Roya Recovery Project, a disaster-relief effort to help farmers, particularly those committed to organic farming, mitigate the long-term effects of Roya.
The project has received widespread support from organizations such as Cafe Moto, Cafe Mystique, Dillanos, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Oiko Credit and Progreso.
“This year’s crisis-level Roya outbreak has implications for all of us in the specialty coffee supply chain,” notes David Griswold, President and founder of Sustainable Harvest. “Let’s Talk Roya presents a unique setting to talk about ways to identify practical solutions to Roya and other issues resulting from climate change.”
The open event will leverage the Let’s Talk Coffee® model of bringing coffee supply chain stakeholders together for direct conversations and collaborative problem-solving. The conference will offer a forum to learn more about the disease from industry experts, discuss recovery strategies and walk away with practical and actionable recommendations.
Attendees will have the unique opportunity to cup Roya-affected coffees in an effort to establish a new common language of taste between roasters, suppliers, certifiers and others relative to the upcoming Central American and Peruvian harvests.
This expectation-setting will be critical in maximizing supplier market opportunity in light of Coffee Rust’s impact on cup quality. The event will also feature farm trips where participants can witness the impacts of climate change on coffee farms firsthand.
“Let’s Talk Roya is an important event for the industry, given the magnitude of the crisis,” said Willy Foote, CEO and founder at Root Capital. “It offers an integrated approach that will help us work better together as an industry to strengthen the coffee supply chain.”
For more information and to register for Let’s Talk Roya, go to http://www.letstalkroya.org.
About Sustainable Harvest
Sustainable Harvest is a specialty coffee importing business that pioneered the Relationship Coffee business model that delivers a high quality, more reliable and consistent product to roasters while boosting financial returns at every level of the supply chain.
Established in 1997, the company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and has origin offices in Peru, Mexico, Colombia, and Tanzania. Sustainable Harvest invests a significant portion of its annual net earnings in training and other projects to help farmers maximize quality and yield and improve livelihoods.
Winner of the 2012 G20 Award, Sustainable Harvest partners with more than 200,000 smallholder farmers to help them secure access to a fair market and ensure a sustainable livelihood.
For more information on the company, visit http://www.sustainableharvest.com.
